[Dixielandjazz] Russ Solomon interviewed - Tower Records Founder

[Robert Ringwald]

Tower Records Founder, 87, Keeps the Musical Spirit Alive
by Sam Whiting
San Francisco Chronicle, August 3, 2013
At age 87, Russ Solomon is still willing to board a train in his hometown of Sacramento
and ride down to see a display of blown-up images of Tower Records, the music store
chain he founded -- and folded 46 years later.
The pictures, inside Hot Italian at Public Market Emeryville through August, are
a teaser for the Tower Records Project --
http://towerrecordsproject.org
-- an archive with aspirations to be a traveling museum exhibit.
As front man for the project, Solomon is eager to offer the opportunity to shake
the hand that shook the hand of Glenn Miller, and showed Dave Clark how to hold a
tow rope. History like that will always find an audience, and apart from the Tower
Records Project, a documentary film has been in the works for five years now.
Q: Where did Tower start?
A: It started in my dad's drugstore, Tower Cut-Rate Drugs, in Sacramento, in 1941.
It was named after the Tower Theatre, which is still there. We started selling records
in the drugstore in 1941.
Q: How big did Tower Records get?
A: We did about $1 billion a year and had about 170 stores worldwide.
Q: How small did it get?
A: It ended with bankruptcy. All the stores closed at once.
Q: Describe the Tower Records Project.
A: It's an interesting accident. I had all kinds of stuff, and the Center for Sacramento
History asked me to donate my big neon sign to them. After that, they said, "You're
part of Sacramento history and we would like to have anything else you've got." I'm
just glad it didn't all get thrown away.
Q: What else is in the collection?
A: I used to take people's ties. I'd explain, "You're in the music business; you're
not comfortable with the tie on. I'm going to make you feel better." So I'd take
the ties right off their neck. I have Bill Graham's tie and Richard Branson's tie.
I donated the ties to the archive, maybe 400 of them.
Q: What do you think about the North Beach store becoming a Walgreens?
A: It started in a drugstore and the damned thing ends up in a drugstore. There's
something poetic about that.
Q: Who is making the documentary?
A: Colin Hanks and Sean Stuart are the partners in it. They're a couple of Sacramento
boys that are in the movie business, because of Colin's dad (Tom Hanks).
Q: Record stores have died everywhere. Why the continued interest in Tower?
A: Damned if I know. I think during that period of time, from 1960 to 2006, we became
a part of an awful lot of people's lives. If you were into music, and most people
were, Tower was the place to go because we had the biggest selection, and we were
part of the scene.
Q: Any other projects?
A: Not really, just keeping alive.
Q: Were you a musician?
A: The only thing I could play was a phonograph and I was really good at that.
Q: Regrets?
A: I should have gone public in the '90s. I was talked out of it by my financial
guy and it was a terrible mistake. If we'd gone public, we would have had time to
change and evolve into something better.
Q: Of all the musicians you've met, who was your favorite?
A: I got a chance to meet Count Basie and Benny Goodman. Today nobody would care
about that, but those are the big thrills in my life.
Q: If you hadn't started a record store, what would you have done?
A: I don't know. Everything was an accident.
Q: What would you call your autobiography?
A: "Everything Was an Accident."
Q: Who plays you in the movie?
A: Somebody who is a little bit nuts and funny.
-30-


-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

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